UncategorizedComments Off on Women’s tennis looks for third consecutive win

Mar282002

Authors: Lee Miller

The CSU women’s tennis team will begin their Mountain West Conference schedule this weekend with matches against UNLV and San Diego State.

The Rams are coming off their best performances of the season with consecutive wins against Bowling Green State and Cal-State Fullerton. The wins were critical in boosting the team’s confidence heading into the league schedule, improving the Rams’ record to 5-8 after a slow start early in the season.

“Both of these teams will be tough to defeat,” said head coach Jon Messick.

The Rams need to at least split these matches in order to improve their standing in the conference.

“UNLV is one of the better teams we will face in the conference schedule,” Messick said. “We beat them last year, so hopefully we will be able to continue the trend.”

In order to continue that trend, the Rams will need sustained great play from junior Sanja Hansson and senior Bobbe Vasos. Hansson has won seven of her last 10 matches at the No.1seed, and Vasos leads the team with a 15-5 record at No.4.

Also coming off good showings in California are freshmen Dasha Zhurin and Alexandra Paganetti.

“If we can keep the momentum up from the last two matches, we have a good chance at reaching a .500 record within the next week,” Messick said.

The team flew to San Diego Thursday afternoon and will return Sunday night. They have a match against the University of Denver on April 3. n

I am beginning to fear that we live in a world that caters to the thin-skinned and the overly-sensitive.

Case in point-the Fightin’ Whities, an intramural basketball team at the University of Northern Colorado that has been receiving nationwide media attention. According to the Coloradoan, the team chose its name to call attention to the “offensiveness” of Eaton High School’s “Fightin’ Reds” name and mascot.

The team’s outspoken stance even earned them the invitation to speak to the Multiculturalism and the Media class here at CSU earlier this week.

It would seem that the members of the Fightin’ Whities find the use of Indians as school mascots objectionable because it represents a stereotype of the Native American.

I guess my problem is that I just don’t see anything wrong with the whole issue.

I grew up just east of Fort Collins, going to school in Pierce, Ault and Windsor, three of the towns that surround Eaton. From the time I was old enough to play competitive sports, I remember playing the Eaton Reds on a yearly basis. I had, and still have, friends that attended Eaton High School. For all of us growing up in the area, the “Fightin’ Reds” were a reality and a near constant influence in our lives.

Yet, even with the constant influence of this “stereotype,” I do not know one single individual who believes that Native Americans sit around with their legs and arms crossed, wearing a loincloth and a headband with one feather sticking out of the top.

So, the question I would ask is – Where is the evil here?

Is it evil that when Eaton High School was built, the administrators wanted a mascot that would inspire student pride in their school? Is it evil that the administrators wanted to give the students an identity, a symbol to stand behind? Or, is it evil that the school happened to chose that symbol, that mascot, to be a caricature of an Indian?

The evil in the situation exists in stereotypes. The problem with that is, stereotypes aren’t written or painted on walls, stereotypes exist in the minds of men.

The Fightin’ Whites can’t erase the stereotype in question by erasing the cross-legged caricature off the walls at Eaton High School. The only way to erase that stereotype is to educate, a method of fighting that the Fightin’ Whities say has failed.

I would argue, based upon the fact that I don’t know anyone who has seen the light of day even briefly during the last fifteen years who really expects to run into a Native American dressed like the Eaton Red, that education has worked.

To me, and to most people possessed of a grain of common sense, the Eaton Red is nothing more than a fictitious character on par with the Philly Fanatic-and that is the way it should be.

That same grain of common sense tells me that there has got to be a cause more worth fightin’ for than pressuring one of Colorado’s many cash poor schools to spend valuable money changing every mention of the fictitious Eaton Red to something more benign.

We gotta look at the bright side-at least they’re not the Eaton Lambkins.

Monday marks the beginning of the Associated Students of CSU elections. It’s good that we’ve got a weekend to rest up before the excitement of voting begins, because we all have some important decisions to make.

To vote or not to vote, that might be the question.

ASCSU has worked hard to ensure that there will be a choice of some kind when it comes to voting for president and vice president. As of this writing, there are at least two tickets, one on the ballot and one that has registered as a write-in ticket. There may be more, as the deadline for write-in ticket registration comes this afternoon.

When it comes to senators, you have several choices in most colleges – that’s a good thing.

Please take the weekend to decide how you’re going to participate in the election process.

If you choose to vote, make sure that you’ve done a bit of research; be certain that you choose candidates that you feel will represent you and your needs. Consider that these people will have some control over your student fee money, and that they’ll be speaking on your behalf to the administration and to the community. Choose wisely.

If you choose not to vote, well, that’s your choice. But make sure that you consider the ramifications of that decision as well.

I am beginning to fear that we live in a world that caters to the thin-skinned and the overly-sensitive.

Case in point-the Fightin’ Whities, an intramural basketball team at the University of Northern Colorado that has been receiving nationwide media attention. According to the Coloradoan, the team chose its name to call attention to the “offensiveness” of Eaton High School’s “Fightin’ Reds” name and mascot.

The team’s outspoken stance even earned them the invitation to speak to the Multiculturalism and the Media class here at CSU earlier this week.

It would seem that the members of the Fightin’ Whities find the use of Indians as school mascots objectionable because it represents a stereotype of the Native American.

I guess my problem is that I just don’t see anything wrong with the whole issue.

I grew up just east of Fort Collins, going to school in Pierce, Ault and Windsor, three of the towns that surround Eaton. From the time I was old enough to play competitive sports, I remember playing the Eaton Reds on a yearly basis. I had, and still have, friends that attended Eaton High School. For all of us growing up in the area, the “Fightin’ Reds” were a reality and a near constant influence in our lives.

Yet, even with the constant influence of this “stereotype,” I do not know one single individual who believes that Native Americans sit around with their legs and arms crossed, wearing a loincloth and a headband with one feather sticking out of the top.

So, the question I would ask is – Where is the evil here?

Is it evil that when Eaton High School was built, the administrators wanted a mascot that would inspire student pride in their school? Is it evil that the administrators wanted to give the students an identity, a symbol to stand behind? Or, is it evil that the school happened to chose that symbol, that mascot, to be a caricature of an Indian?

The evil in the situation exists in stereotypes. The problem with that is, stereotypes aren’t written or painted on walls, stereotypes exist in the minds of men.

The Fightin’ Whites can’t erase the stereotype in question by erasing the cross-legged caricature off the walls at Eaton High School. The only way to erase that stereotype is to educate, a method of fighting that the Fightin’ Whities say has failed.

I would argue, based upon the fact that I don’t know anyone who has seen the light of day even briefly during the last fifteen years who really expects to run into a Native American dressed like the Eaton Red, that education has worked.

To me, and to most people possessed of a grain of common sense, the Eaton Red is nothing more than a fictitious character on par with the Philly Fanatic-and that is the way it should be.

That same grain of common sense tells me that there has got to be a cause more worth fightin’ for than pressuring one of Colorado’s many cash poor schools to spend valuable money changing every mention of the fictitious Eaton Red to something more benign.

We gotta look at the bright side-at least they’re not the Eaton Lambkins.

They were everywhere. Teenage kids wearing Converse All-Stars, hobbit haircuts and clothes that can only be found in a thrift store. They were all there for one reason: Chris Carrabba, or as he has been known for some time now, Dashboard Confessional.

Carrabba, whose one-man band is quickly becoming a quartet, is on a national tour with Legends of Rodeo, Ben Kweller and Kansas indie-rockers The Anniversary. The tour came through Denver to the Ogden Theatre Thursday night.

To start the night off, Legends of Rodeo took the stage and played what sounded like American rock – a heavier version of the music for which John Mellencamp is famous. I had never heard of them before and I honestly don’t ever want to hear of them again.

After one disappointing opening act, I was a little leery to pay attention to Ben Kweller, but he kicked off his set with an acoustic version of “BK Baby” (Kweller’s version of the Vanilla Ice hit) and I knew I couldn’t not like this guy. Then the backup band came out and they played a great set of songs reminiscent of Pavement, including one that was “a couple’s skate only.”

Now the show was about to start for real. I had been waiting to see The Anniversary again since I saw them on their first tour with the Get Up Kids back in 2000. Now, with a new album and two years of experience, I knew they were going to impress. Their set consisted of mostly new material with a little bit of old stuff. They finished their set with “Perfectly” and rocked the crowd so hard, they may have made a few new fans.

And finally, after two hours of other bands, the headliner came out. After a new “Dashboard Confessional” backdrop was raised, the man himself came out to greet his fans. Standing about 5-foot-3, Carrabba went right into “Saints and Sailors” without saying a word. Through the night he played a lot of older classics like “Living in your Letters” and “Age Six Racer,” while periodically trading the old acoustic guitar for an electric one to rip through new songs and give old songs a brand new feel.

With exposure on MTV, corporate radio and college stations like KCSU, Carrabba is somewhere he never thought he would be. He stressed that to the crowd over and over again and actually seemed sincere when he said, “Thanks for comin’ out.”

The tour continued to Iowa City the next night and Carrabba’s career is likely to keep blossoming as well. If he keeps touring and putting on amazing shows, he can only go up. n

The Florida-based band is made up of Joshua Colbert and Nick Dominguez (guitars), Jason Gleason (vocals), Chad Neptune (bass) and Steve Kleisath (drums).

The album is the band’s debut with Tooth and Nail Records, and is the final album with Chris Carrabba (vocals), who left the band to pursue his side project, Dashboard Confessional. Gleason replaced Carrabba.

The band was viewed with some confusion with its decision on the Tooth and Nail record label, since it is known for its signing and distribution of Christian bands. The band thanks God in its liner notes, but makes no other references in their music.

Colbert, Neptune and Kleisath came together before Further Seems Forever in a hardcore band called Strongarm. The hardcore influences are felt strongest in the title track and “The Bradley.”

Carrabba’s lilting voice leads to ballad-esque elements in many of the songs, but the strong presence of guitars and drum lines draw a distinction between this band and Carrabba’s new band.

The lyrics of the album are filled with emotion and simple messages. The track “New Year’s Project,” discusses the opportunities a new year will bring to a relationship. Following in the tradition of emo rock, the songs tend to center around relationships and feelings of love.

“Just Until Sundown” is a song with a strong emphasis on the longing an ending relationship brings.

“Just one more second and we’ll be just fine. This could be the last time,” ends the chorus, bringing pain to the heart of the teenage audience the band tends to attract.

Further Seems Forever is currently on tour with Hot Rod Circuit and Thrice and visited Denver earlier in the month. n

While no bassist this side of Siberia can overcome Rancid’s, Fat Mike holds his own in competition with Freeman’s rabid bass lines. Racing through “Tenderloin,” Fat Mike displays his dexterity, speeding across the frets with abandon.

Melodizing both Rancid’s hasty cry for the destruction of California, “Antennaes,” and ska-thick search for love, “Corazon de Oro,” NOFX consolidates the former’s wide musical range into its own prescribed style.

In the most enthralling alteration of the album, NOFX’s El Hefe exchanges Rancid’s thrashy “Radio” for an organ-splashed calyptic reggae tour de force. Reminiscent of Rancid’s recent musical expansion, this detour is the diamond in a bag of gems.

Filling the void between Frederiksen rants and scratching through NOFX staple Bob, Rancid’s Tim Armstrong twists the melodic ballad in his cheeks and spits it toothless through the speakers. Pining the downfalls of alcoholism, Armstrong provides a tour through recovery from the disease.

In the third release of BYO Records’ Split Series, NOFX formulates Rancid’s plethora of musical manner into its own, while Rancid tears the harmony from the former and regurgitates ripping bass lines and goring vocals.

Buy the NOFX/Rancid split album from your local independent record store.

Twelve Cents for Marvin will be making an appearance at the Aggie (204 S. College Ave.) Saturday night in preparation of a multi-faceted West coast tour. The band, twice voted by CSU students as Fort Collins’ favorite, is well-known for the energy exuded in its live shows. The seven-piece ensemble’s ability to collate different genres, in addition to their proclivity for jamming, make seeing Twelve Cents for Marvin a crowd-pleasing event.

In a band of this size, the songwriting process tends to lean heavily towards collaboration.

“Songwriting for us starts out a couple of different ways,” Werge said. “It begins with either the band jamming on a few interesting chord progressions, or me writing lyrics while I’m sitting in my room at 2:30 in the morning. Every band member’s point of view is taken into account and the lyrics, chord patterns and horn parts evolve into songs.”

While Twelve Cents for Marvin’s previous albums, “Yellow Raincoat” and “King of the Ring,” were entirely self-produced, they are currently negotiating with Nuttsactor 5, the record label of former tourmate Fishbone, for an upcoming album. The album will be recorded in May and is set to be released in October.

“There have been people who have helped us along the way, but we have primarily done everything on our own,” Werge said. “Doing it independently initially made it hard to get started, but now we have learned, through trial and error, how to succeed as musicians.”

Tickets for the show will be $5 at the door. Suburbia’s Finest opens. Contact the Aggie Theater at (970) 407-1322 for more details. n

Recently, the highly accredited and award winning dramatic actor Robert DeNiro (“Raging Bull”) has been making a name for himself as the straight man in several comedies. Starting in ’98 with the sleeper comedy hit “Wag the Dog,” he set off a series of comedies that some believe are destined to end his career. But hopefully, “Showtime” isn’t one someone will remember when he or she thinks of the great Robert DeNiro.

Written by the typical group for Hollywood salary writers, this comedy follows the perfectly structured piece with all of the stereotypical characters. Because the salary writers wrote this, the script lacks creativity and is plagued with tiresome jokes. It begins with a rather funny speech by police officer Mitch (DeNiro) to some school children, but we see that in the television trailer. It then moves to Trey (Eddie Murphy from “The Nutty Professor”), who plays an incredibly annoying cop who would rather be a Hollywood star. Trey quickly foils DeNiro’s drug bust and we then see the horribly exaggerated hand-held shotgun that will later pierce through the side of an armored truck but can’t go through a sandbag.

DeNiro is on a case to find out what this gun is and where it came from. That plot is more exciting to write in a review than it is to watch, believe me. It starts off insulting cop movies and then becomes one. The film seems to devour itself in its own criticism.

It is very difficult to not feel sympathy for the very talented veteran actors in the cast. Of course, DeNiro pulls off a believable character and there is little to criticize. As for the others, Rene Russo and Eddie Murphy, it doesn’t seem they tried to give anything to their characters at all. Russo plays the hard hitting and ambitious television producer who brings the reality show to the small screen, but the only thing that brings the focus off her ‘in-your-face’ contrived acting is the very poor performance of Murphy. Murphy made his character so annoying, you are hoping he’ll catch a bullet from DeNiro’s gun. This performance seems to be his nameless donkey character in “Shrek” in the form of a police officer. We are also subjected to watching William Shatner and Johnnie Cochran act. This doesn’t help an already troubled cause.

The movie teeters on the brink of being an action/adventure and a comedy, which makes the action drag with tedious scenes and redundant conflict that then plunges into sentimental nonsense and rushes into a “wrap-it-up” ending. With the poor script and acting and with the mediocre directing of Tom Dey (“Shanghi Noon”), this movie can’t reach a higher grade than a D+. n

Another comic book character created by the mind of Stan Lee, the legend of all comics, made it big in the box-office so, of course, Hollywood had to make a sequel. Should they have?

They probably shouldn’t have made the first one.

“Blade II” takes on the great moneymaking genre of action, but tried to have the action sequences support the entire movie, which was a big mistake.

Blade is a half-vampire, half-human character that has acquired all of the vampire strengths but none of their weaknesses (which is convenient) so he can walk in the daylight.

The other vampires call him the Daywalker and fear him because it is his job to kill them. For this sequel, however, the vampires need his help to kill a new race that can’t be killed by silver or garlic, but are still susceptible to the UV light from the sun or any other artificial light containing UV rays.

It seems simple enough, especially considering it appears as if there is sunlight pouring into each room they fight in. But if they died in sunlight, the movie wouldn’t have the fight scenes, which are the only reason to see it.

The fight sequences are eventful and entertaining to watch, but some of the fights are superimposed with computers to the point that the audience can clearly tell there isn’t one actor out there. Some of the fighting looks like a PlayStation 1 game (that’s right, PS1, not PS2 – quality is lacking).

The only thing more cliched than the array of typical characters is the dialogue. Maybe, and that’s a big maybe, if the acting was better, the dialogue would seem less contrived, but the actors here should be nominated for a Razzie award (the “Academy Awards” given to the worst of every category, which “Freddy Got Fingered” swept this year).

Wesley Snipes, who plays the title character, has incredible talent – he shouldn’t reduce himself to a script like this and then not appear to put that much into it. As Snipes is, he should transcend a script like this.

This film will cater to those who want an absolutely mindless action film. Things are bloody, brutal, and action-packed, but that can’t support the entire movie.

Looking at this picture as just an entertaining action film and placing it in comparison with other films of its genre, I give it a C-. It gets this low grade because if you want that kind of action, you can watch Jackie Chan or Arnold Schwarzenegger. And if you don’t want mindless action, just good action, then rent “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” As for an actual credible movie, this film gets higher than an F just because I can’t completely degrade Snipes, but it can’t climb higher than a D-. n